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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

The judge serving as a one-man grand jury probing the troubled Wayne County Jail construction project wants to preserve scores of records, beyond a much anticipated audit report.

Judge Timothy Kenny issued orders Thursday to preserve records of almost every kind related to the project, saying they “shall be preserved as evidence and not destroyed, tampered or altered in any way.”

The order doesn’t demand they be turned over, merely preserved “until such time that they are subpoenaed or until further order of the court.”

County officials confirmed they received the order but declined to comment on it. It was served on both the administration of County Executive Robert Ficano and the Wayne County Commission. Among the documents Kenny wants preserved are:

Kenny is looking into what happened with the project, which was projected to exceed its $300-million budget by $91 million before it was halted last month. He became a one-person grand jury after an appeal from county Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who was given the findings of an audit completed last month by Willie Mayo, the county’s auditor general.

Mayo and his staff spent more than 2,000 hours investigating the troubled project before concluding potential criminal activity could have been involved in the process.

Mayo has turned over his findings to Worthy, who told him not to release them publicly or he would risk being charged with obstruction of justice.

Deputy County Executive Jeffrey Collins last week called for the report to be released, saying it had taken on a life of its own.